Opening page…
The bundle that calls itself I
Look for the part of you that watches your thoughts. If you cannot catch it, was it ever there?
Thoughts and feelings are easy to find. The owner of them is harder to catch.
16 people have answered this.
Your answer
A little context
Try it now. Close your eyes and look for the one who is looking. You will find a thought about dinner, perhaps the scrap of a song. What you won't easily find is the thing all of it is supposedly happening to.
Read alongside it1
ReadingI never can catch myselfFor my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.
For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.
Nearby questions
- What do you owe the child you used to be?Your body, your memories and your values have all changed since then. Some of that child's hopes are still waiting on you.
- What makes you you?A perfect copy of you could wake up tomorrow with your memories, your habits and your love for your people, certain that it is you.
- Would you want to remember everything?Forgetting can feel like a loss of truth or a condition of becoming someone new.
- What flaw would you refuse to have fixed?What looks like damage from the outside may be carrying part of a person's identity.
- The apology you never madeIf an AI copy of you apologized for something you never said, would you stand by it?
